My son is not the type of toddler that screams and cries in a restaurant.(Try and wash his hair or give him a haircut, now that is another story.) He doesn’t draw much attention to himself actually. However, he will NOT sit still. The highchair phase is long gone, he wiggles too much for a booster seat and a chair is so easy to slip off of and walk away. Normally we get a booth. My husband and I try and block him in. He, of course, just slips under the table and tries to get away. We have tried various things. Bringing snacks, ordering his food first so it comes fairly quickly, toys and even crayons. The crayons are the one thing that actually work. The only problem is, is that he will either bite them or write on the table and the wall.
We have the same problem at home. My son will color on the paper for a few minutes and then run and color on a wall or on the TV speakers. He loves to color but we can’t let him use crayons and markers if he is only going to color on everything BUT the paper. I saw a commercial on TV for Crayola Color Wonder Products. They are markers and fingerpaints that only come off on certain paper and coloring books. Perfect invention and less messy then the Aqua Doodle stamps we got him for Christmas last year. They are slightly pricey at $8.49 for a pack of 10 markers, but it is well worth it. I have yet to purchase the finger paints but I think I might give them a go pretty soon as well.
My son loves these. He still tries to color on the walls and everything else, but eventually gives up and just draws on the paper, as that is the only place the color shows up. It is the same idea as those water color books where you dip the paintbrush in the water and brush it over the pages and the color appears. The Color Wonder Markers are a lot less messy than that however. The only downside to Color Wonder,r is that they only mark on certain paper that you have to buy separately, or you can buy a set of Color Wonder Markers or Fingerpaints and a character coloring book together like Disney’s “Cars” or Disney’ “Princesses” for a little bit more than just the markers and fingerpaints alone.
We have taken the Color Wonder Markers and coloring pads to restraints with us and they keep my son entertained, at least for a little while. He can’t color on the walls or the table with these, so that makes us AND the restaurant employees very happy. I believe these would make a great gift for creative kids that tend to make a mess in the process of artwork. They would also make a GREAT stocking stuffer idea! I highly recommend Crayola Color Wonder as a Christmas gift. I know you will enjoy them as much as we do.
